The Christmas shopping rush has settled into its familiar rhythm. Shopping centres packed at odd hours, parcels stacked on doorsteps, inboxes filling with discount codes and expiring offers. For retailers, it is the most intense trading period of the year. For households, it is a constant calculation between generosity and budget.
Most businesses operate honestly. They advertise accurately and sell goods that meet Australian standards. A few, however, rely on the rush itself: psychological pressure, questionable claims, unsafe products and the assumption that no one will stop to look too closely in the final weeks before Christmas. This year, we’re putting retailers on notice that bad behaviour carries serious consequences.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has signalled that it will be actively looking for misconduct over the festive season. Its focus is on false or misleading sales claims, fake discounts, pressure tactics that rush people into decisions, and unsafe products. These problems are not new, but the scale and speed of modern retail makes them easier to spread and harder to spot.
Since coming to office, the Australian Government has raised the penalties for anti‑consumer conduct. The most egregious breaches of consumer law now carry penalties of up to $50 million per offence. These tougher penalties are intended to make non‑compliance a genuine commercial risk rather than a tolerable cost.
Safety is squarely in focus, particularly when it comes to toys containing button batteries. If these tiny batteries are swallowed, the consequences can be devastating. Yet as CHOICE has identified, online platforms still sometimes attempt to sell children’s toys where the battery compartment is not child‑safe.
Our government has provided the consumer watchdog with an additional $30 million to boost enforcement, but consumers can help too. If you spot a ‘no refunds under any circumstances’ sign, if you see retailers offering fake discounts, or if you see products online that breach the consumer law, you can help by making a complaint to the consumer watchdog or your state or territory office of fair trading.
Online shopping makes this even more important. Misleading claims, imitation goods and unsafe imports are easier to hide behind a glossy webpage. A toy that looks cheap and cheerful online still must meet Australian safety standards when it arrives in the mail.
One response to that challenge has been the ACCC’s Australian Product Safety Pledge, a voluntary initiative that aims to strengthen safety practices across online retail. The pledge commits participating platforms to go beyond the minimum required by law. Under the Product Safety Pledge, platforms agree to better product monitoring, faster removal of unsafe goods and clearer pathways for reporting risks.
Last financial year, the 3 signatories to the code – Amazon, eBay and AliExpress – voluntarily removed around 31,000 items from their stores that breached consumer law, a 60 per cent increase on the previous year. That figure gives a sense of both the scale of the problem and the impact that coordinated action can have.
Good consumer enforcement is good for competition too. Honest retailers are undercut when competitors mislead customers or sell unsafe stock without consequence. When companies know that their competitors are being held to account, it takes away the temptation to cut corners.
For shoppers, the practical guidance is straightforward. Take a moment with sales claims that feel engineered for speed rather than clarity. Be cautious about discounts that are hard to verify. Check whether toys have proper warnings and secure battery compartments. If something seems unsafe or misleading, report it. Complaints are logged, patterns are assessed, and action follows more often than many people realise.
The Christmas retail season compresses weeks of decisions into days. That intensity creates opportunity for poor behaviour. It also makes this the moment when boundaries matter most.
This year, those boundaries are being drawn clearly. The message to retailers is simple: sell, compete, advertise and discount – but do it honestly and safely. The message to shoppers is just as plain: enjoy the season, and if something looks wrong, say so.